by T5 and GoozX
The alarms went off as Naecken accidentally thrashed his VR container and fell to the floor.
The research team ran off, and the room was once again sealed off. Everyone was waiting for him to once again try to escape the way he had done so many times before.
But to everyone's surprise, he simply awoke and smiled. He sat down on one of the chairs and scowled at the cameras.
"What's he doing? Isn't he going to try to escape?"
"Never mind that. Why is he smiling?" said the team leader.
Another white-robed man ran into the room and yelled, "Sir? Doc? We just got a message from headquarters saying we have an incoming hostile. And sir... it's from Trutopia."
"Oh, shit! Get everyone out of here and evacuate all documents and any crew working on any other projects!"
"But what about the other test subjects?"
"Well, if you want to fight the people of Trutopia, go right ahead. Me, I want to see tomorrow alive. C'mon, people -- scramble!"
The teams and crew quickly loaded their trucks with only small-sized equipment and drove off, just minutes before the army arrived.
Inside, several VR containers were still active and running their programs.
The black sphere arrived, and from it four people emerged. One was totally black, with black eyes, no hair, a skinny but immensely trained girl who jumped out in mid-air and landed softly on the ground, hissing at the tanks. She was called Cat. The famous Khan twins hovered just a few feet above. And then the last man appeared, the huge, red, crystalline man known as Crystal, who landed the sphere mere feet away from the army who were waiting for them with weapons and tanks.
Crystal switched on a megaphone so his voice could be heard by everyone. "You have two minutes to get out of here. We will only get what we came for and leave. Please do not force us to use violence!"
The officer in charge counter-replied with, "This is government property. You have no right to land here. Any intrusion into the facility will be considered an act of war. Leave or be destroyed."
The twins smiled at each other. And the scared soldiers looked at each other, knowing they were in for the fight of their lives.
The standoff lasted only for a few minutes, minutes that both parties took to gather their strength and energies.
Cat suddenly took one great leap onto the roof, and all the soldiers fired at once. The twins' protective pink sphere made all the bullets lose their inertia, and they simply fell to the ground. Crystal hardly noticed them and walked toward the closest tank.
The tank fired. Crystal caught the charge in his chest and smiled. He bent the cannon upward and continued toward the next one. At the same time, the Khan twins made illusory fire erupt all over the soldiers. Panic ensued, and the order for retreat came soon afterward.
It was an hour later, when the soldiers dared to go back again, that they found the facility as they had left it. All the equipment was still there. The still-humming VR containers were still packed with the people inside them.
The only thing missing was the black devil-like man who had awoken earlier.
Jonathan Reynolds was on guard. He hated having to let his guard down, even if only for a minute. His boss was a few feet away, not angry or even displeased. He simply smiled as if things were still under his control.
"Sir, why did we stand down? With maximum force we could have done a lot of damage, maybe could have even got a few more soldiers out of the deal."
"Jonathan, while playing chess, do you risk all of your men one by one to catch the king right away? Or do you plan out each move, watching the surroundings very carefully?"
"Yes, sir, but..."
"Right now I need not risk a war with another country, one that has just as much power as we. In a few short hours, none of this will have mattered, anyhow."
None of this will have mattered anyhow.
Jonathan Reynolds had been taught to question the world around him. He was also taught to follow orders. For some reason, this one simple line scared the shit out of him.
What was his boss' plan? What did he need these metas for? What importance did the year 2002 have?
And worse, why did Reynolds have this sudden fear, that maybe he did not exist... or better yet, that he would not exist?